Integrated Health Care Delivery Systems: “The Wave of the Future?”

Health care delivery is undergoing a major change in the United States, and it is happening with little fanfare, due to the fervent debate over the viability of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Hospital systems, such as Mt. Sinai in New York, are cutting out the middle man when it comes to insurance coverage, in order to retain more profits from services provided. Mt. Sinai, located in New York, is an example of a hospital system that is providing its own insurance options to patients who receive treatment within the system.

Both non-profit and for-profit hospitals can benefit from implementing such programs, as there are certain services that are not economically sustainable, but must be accessible to the public. For example, psychiatric care does not generate a lot of revenue, but is a necessary and important service. Ezekiel Emanuel was one of the creators of the ACA, and is chairman of the Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. He states that “the wave of the future is integrated delivery systems—integrating insurance with the delivery function.”

Disclaimer

The pieces here represent the position and analysis of the individual authors and not those of the Hofstra Bioethics Center or The Gitenstein Institute for Health Law & Policy. Each author is responsible for the accuracy of the citations and substance of the text itself.